Using partial specialization the error can be made arbitrarily long: template <int C, typename T> struct ERR { int operator()(int x) { return ERR<C-1,T>()(x); } }; template <typename T> struct ERR<0,T> { int operator()(T x) { return x; } }; int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { return ERR<123,void>()(123456); } Produces 1.2 MB of error messages (inner part trimmed out) when compiled with MSVC: longerr.cpp longerr.cpp(2): error C2860: 'void' cannot be used as a function parameter except for '(void)' longerr.cpp(2): note: the template instantiation context (the oldest one first) is longerr.cpp(3): note: see reference to class template instantiation 'ERR<123,void>' being compiled longerr.cpp(1): note: while compiling class template member function 'int ERR<123,void>::operator ()(int)' longerr.cpp(3): note: see the first reference to 'ERR<123,void>::operator ()' in 'main' longerr.cpp(1): note: see reference to class template instantiation 'ERR<122,T>' being compiled with [ T=void ] longerr.cpp(1): note: while compiling class template member function 'int ERR<122,T>::operator ()(int)' with [ T=void ] ......... longerr.cpp(1): note: see the first reference to 'ERR<122,T>::operator ()' in 'ERR<123,void>::operator ()' with [ T=void ] longerr.cpp(3): note: see the first reference to 'ERR<123,void>::operator ()' in 'main' longerr.cpp(1): note: see reference to class template instantiation 'ERR<0,T>' being compiled with [ T=void ] Instead of 123456 a larger constant can be used (up to the compiler limit which is platform dependent).